‘Closing the Gap’ event June 1-2 to focus on access to healthcare, employment, education, economic development

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

BUFFALO, NY — Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Director of the Center for Immunotherapy at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), will give the opening address at BUILD of Buffalo’s 18th annual convention. Under the theme “Closing the Gap: Healthcare is a Civil Right … Not a Privilege,” the two-day convention will focus on access to healthcare, employment, education and economic development. Speaking at 9 a.m. Friday, June 1, at the Friends Inc. Center, 118 E. Utica St., Buffalo, Dr. Odunsi will discuss his path toward a career as a physician and researcher working to develop vaccine therapies to treat cancer, and give perspectives on how to close the gap on healthcare disparities.

BUILD, or Build Unity, Independence, Liberty & Dignity, works to promote empowerment for African-Americans and unity among all Western New York residents. BUILD and RPCI have teamed up on a pair of initiatives to promote health and improve quality of life for Western New York residents. BUILD is working with RPCI to support responsible tobacco retailing by limiting the advertising of tobacco products in delis and convenience stores, and has also partnered with Roswell Park’s Office of Cancer Health Disparities Research to bring awareness of cancer screening and treatment programs to the minority community.

After earning his medical degree from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Dr. Odunsi completed postgraduate training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Cambridge, UK. He then completed a research fellowship in molecular oncology and earned a doctoral degree at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories, University of Oxford, UK. His clinical training continued with a residency at the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, and a clinical fellowship in gynecologic oncology at RPCI.

Also speaking at the two-day convention are LaVonne Ansari, PhD, of the Community Health Center of Buffalo, the Rev. George Franklin Nicholas of Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church and Charley H. Fisher III, BUILD President.

Registration fees (breakfast included) are $20 for individual attendees, $50 for families (up to five people) and $100 for groups of six or more. For more information, call 716-650-8889.

The mission of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. RPCI, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit RPCI’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-877-ASK-RPCI (1-877-275-7724) or email askrpci@roswellpark.org.